Place in Transition: Exploring potentials of relocating and exposing places within enclosed networks

The oil industry has created economic growth and technological advances during the last 150 years, with inherent consequences. By the oil peak in 2006 this development is turning into a decline in the industry (Birol 2011). This leaves a large amount of disused facilities and structures to be decommissioned, in the context of the North Sea no less than 600 oil rig structures are to be decommissioned within the next 30 years (Schmidt 2004), creating potentially transformable 'drosscapes' (Berger 2006). These structures are weaved into an enclosed network, an 'Oil World', inaccessible and disconnected from the 'Everyday World'. Within mobilities studies, research has focused on different aspects and consequences of the post-oil society (see Dennis & Urry 2009, Urry 2013). This paper discusses the conception of place within the enclosed 'Oil World' with point of departure in relocation and redefinition of oil rigs from an urban design perspective. The paper constitutes a theoretical basis for future design scenarios - exemplified through visionary urban design proposals for a specific site in the city of Esbjerg, Denmark. Relocating rigs to an urban context initiates discussions of conception of 'Place' questioning the fixity of 'Place' (Jensen 2010). Scoped through a relational sense of place (Massey 1993) and the potential of exploring new relations between places (Burns & Kahn 2005), the paper challenges the notion of 'Place as God' (Hvattum 2010). These places in transition contest the enclosed and hidden network of oil.